The Myth of Japanese Efficiency: The World Car Industry in a Globalizing AgeCombining case studies with accessible but rigorous production models and historical background, this provocative book challenges accepted views on Japanese production methods in the world car industry. The book argues that the 'lean and flexible' production model popularly associated with Toyota MC is a myth, but one which sheds light on cultural responses to the attendant stresses of globalization. To illustrate this, Dan Coffey provides individual studies of process flexibility, labour productivity and the re-organization of work in the global car industry. Wider evaluations of Japanese impacts on the global economy and a resurgent Western capitalism are then made, progressing the case for a fundamental re-assessment of the narratives informing popular accounts of Japan's manufacturing success. Beginning with the fictionalization of history and propagation of empirical counterfactuals and finishing with observations on the wider impact of the 'lean and flexible' approach, the bold and controversial conclusion reacheld by the author is that what is at stake is our understanding of the form and meaning of 'production fantasy'. The Myth of Japanese Efficiency casts a familiar debate in an unfamiliar light. It will strongly appeal to management and business strategy academics, political economists and industrial sociologists interested in the debate on Fordist versus 'post-Fordist' production methods/'lean and flexible' manufacture and Japanese post-war success in the world market for manufactured goods. Human resource management specialists interested in best production practice will also find much to interest them within this book. |
From inside the book
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... given in Table 2.1 for samples of ranges marketed in the UK , taken from the author's own calculations : the examples given , chosen in order to be indicative of a wider context , are divided into two sets , each separated by a ten year ...
... ( given ) expected production rate , a rise in the share of cars built to order will reduce S while increasing T. Hence curve W is a locus of possible product stock and lead time outcomes for the plant : its negative slope identifies an ...
... given the problems we go on to raise about the manner in which shift work was handled in the IMVP survey , but using similar data and excluding the observations corre- sponding to Europe failed to provide any indications that Japanese ...
Contents
Introducing the myth of Japanese efficiency | 1 |
a myth encountered | 15 |
the BMWRover Group controversy | 44 |
Copyright | |
7 other sections not shown